BPCPPDYSOE21 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 11: Poster A: Single Molecule, Multicellular, Bioimaging, Focus Sessions, etc.

BP 11.20: Poster

Monday, March 22, 2021, 16:30–19:00, BPp

Is Cell segregation just like oil and water: A phase field approach — •Florian Franke, Steffen Lange, Hans-Joachim Böhme, Sebastian Aland, and Anja Voß-Böhme — Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Dresden (HTW), Dresden, Germany

Understanding the segregation of cells is crucial to answer questions about tissue formation in embryos or tumor progression. According to Steinberg’s differential adhesion hypothesis the separation of cells can be compared to the separation of two liquids, e.g. water and oil. Specifically, it was proposed, that similarly to the demixing of fluids, differences in the strengths of the adhesive forces in homo- and heterotypic cell contact lead to all sorting. This hypothesis has been tested on the basis of cell-based models which simulate motile cells with differential adhesive interaction on the basis of probability cellular automaton models. On the other hand, the segregation of fluids like water and Oil can be well described by phase-field models as the Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes-equation.

Here we investigate the relation between the two approaches and to what extent parameters can be transformed between the two models. Further, by comparing simulations of either model to in-vitro experiments from the literature, we conclude that cells segregation is best described by the cellular automaton. Only a specific time regime of the segregation resembles the demixing of two liquids. However, experimentally observed cell segregation displays both regimes of logarithmic and power-law segregation with varying exponent. This rich behavior is reproduced by the cellular automaton model.